Red Wings Want to Improve Goaltending: “We Need to Be Better” 

Red Wings Want to Improve Goaltending: “We Need to Be Better”  NHL Trade Talk.

Suggesting the goaltending wasn’t terrible, Detroit Red Wings’ GM Steve Yzerman admitted, “We need to be better. As per Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now, Yzerman asked, “Are our best options within, including…young guys? Or is it looking at other options?” He answered his own question when he said, “Right now, looking around the league, every team is looking to improve in one area, whether it be their starter or backup.”

Internally, the Red Wings have Ville Husso, backup Magnus Hellberg and Alex Nedeljkovic. None ranked well when looking at the league and different goalies when it came to Goals Prevented Above the Average. The issue for the Red Wings, as it is for many other teams in the same situation, is that the free-agent market is rather thin. He addressed the desire to be active at the end of the season media avail, but also noted that there’s not a big crop of players to go after.

Specifically, when it comes to goalies, Yzerman called the number of available netminders an issue. That means the team might have to find internal solutions. He noted, “Whether we go back with the same three, we need to be better. That goes for all three of them. But ultimately as a team we need to be better to help them out, too. I think we did reduce the Grade A chances we gave up this year. We need to continue to bring that down, make it a little bit easier on them.”

What’s Available to the Red Wings?

Allen pointed out that the biggest names potentially available include Tristan Jarry, Joonas Korpisalo, Adin Hill, Semyon Varlamov, and the Red Wings’ own Alex Nedeljkovic. When it comes to Nedelkovic, Allen says he doesn’t believe the Red Wings will re-sign him, but that it can’t be ruled out because of a lack of other options. The concern with Nedeljkovic might be that if he’s not playing on a regular basis, can he be effective when he’s not always warmed up?

Allen wonders if the Red Wings will explore the trade market.

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Red Wings Want to Improve Goaltending: “We Need to Be Better”  NHL Trade Talk.